


No Light

by sofancydancy (Lthien)



Category: Alexander (2004)
Genre: Hephaestion deserved better, Hephaestion's death reprise, I just needed to write this scene out and cry, M/M, i made myself cry ok, jared leto and colin farrell ruined me thanks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-08
Updated: 2018-10-08
Packaged: 2019-07-28 01:06:05
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 711
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16231013
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lthien/pseuds/sofancydancy
Summary: It was in those last hours, that the world seemed to stop—the world which they had conquered together, so many battles won and few lost. Here, home at last. Surrounded by the familiar Babylonian heat, where Apollo’s light gleamed the brightest. Here, warm within the walls that bore their love and damned it. Together at last, away from the politics and harsh metal. Just flesh and bone, fragile and with a limit of breath. No longer immortal and fearless but broken and battle-worn, but together. Here, at the end of all things.Basically: Hephaestion's death scene but reprised because I live for terrible sadness.





	No Light

It was in those last hours, that the world seemed to stop—the world which they had conquered together, so many battles won and few lost. Here, home at last. Surrounded by the familiar Babylonian heat, where Apollo’s light gleamed the brightest. Here, warm within the walls that bore their love and damned it. Together at last, away from the politics and harsh metal. Just flesh and bone, fragile and with a limit of breath. No longer immortal and fearless but broken and battle-worn, but together. Here, at the end of all things.

Everything was ash and ruin. Without Hephaestion. Everything lost without— “ _Hephaestion_ ,” Alexander breathed, teary-eyed. He pressed his face into one of Hephaestion’s chilled ashen hands, his hair golden and forever blessed by Apollo. Hephaestion smiled meekly, his blue eyes rimmed with death and woe. He tried to reach for him too, but Thanatos clung to his very bones, his breath icy upon his neck.

“W-what did I tell you… _Achilles_ ,” Hephaestion tried, his voice as soft as the breeze, solemn, tears falling. “P-Patroclus went first.” Alexander shook his head, his tears warm upon his closest heart’s marred face. Beautiful still, even at the end. 

The  _end_.

“I will not bear it, Hephaestion…” Alexander wept bitterly, the golden king like a child as he clung to Hephaestion as tightly as he could, some attempt to hold him to the living world. His breath was hot against the very neck he had spent many nights worshipping, the once fevered pulse barely thrumming at all. He kissed him there in hopes of rekindling that flame, greedy for all the missed moments, too many to count. It did lurch, weak but still there. Hephaestion never abandoning him, body nor soul. Alexander let out a sharp wail, knowing that the gods were finally through with him in all things; the sun fading as Hephaestion left his world. “ _How do I go on without you_?” He begged as he tossed away his gilded robe and circlet, both forgotten. He climbed onto their bed, gathering him close. Nose-to-nose they lay, both clinging with everything they had.

Hephaestion pressed his lips to his king’s, chapped and cold, trembling. “I worry…about you…without me,” He murmured against them, soft. There was once a hint of humor in the truth, now it served as a reminder. His fingers curled lightly in Alexander’s sweaty hand, gentle as he was only to him. Soft only in his eyes and bed.

“I am  _nothing_ without you,” Alexander cried in return, ruined in body and soul. “Please do not go, Hephaestion. Fight.  _Fight_!” Hephaestion wept too, both young and finally scared of what awaited all men. For men they were, not immortal as Alexander thought them to be. Hephaestion said nothing for a long while, content on pressing his fevered forehead against his lover’s mouth, wanting nothing more than to stay there forever. As it was all he ever dreamed or wanted.

“Stay with me…Alexander,” Hephaestion asked in the end, his body wracked with shivers from the Typhoid.  _Hold me_. Alexander was momentarily frozen, his fingers curled tightly in Hephaestion’s linen tunic. It was to be the only command Hephaestion never heeded.

“W-where would I go without you, Hephaestion?” Alexander replied, pressing his salty cheek against his lover’s dullen curls. Hephaestion managed a soft laugh, one that pierced through both of them, his breath nearly leaving him with a slight squeeze of his fingers.

Alexander held him until the tremors grew still. Held him until his body grew cold against his own. Held tighter when the sun came, taunting as it shown upon blue eyes that once found only his own in a crowd of thousands. 

Alexander screamed then, a sound that came from the very core of him. He kissed him and kissed him, begging Apollo to trade his life for Hephaestion’s. To change his course and return the world to Nyx. To bring him back.  _Bring him back._

No one could touch them. Alexander raged against anyone who dared, friend or soldier. He still clung to Hephaestion, as he promised. Kissed him as if he could change time and feel his lips warm and moving under his own, a thousand kisses that he had never given in life.


End file.
